Jewish producer says he was threatened over film about AMIA bombing

A Jewish producer making a movie about the 1994 AMIA bombing case and its late special prosecutor Alberto Nisman said he was  threatened.

Stan Jakubowicz, a Venezuela native now living in Miami, will produce the movie. “The Prosecutor” has a budget of about $3 million and will start production later this year.

Filming locations have not been disclosed by Jakubowicz, but it is reported likely that it will be shot in Buenos Aires.

“Nisman’s death and all the recent developments surrounding this case have created lots of fear, especially among Argentinians,” Jakubowicz told JTA this week. “We have received all kinds of messages trying to convince us not to make this film. As a security measure for our cast and crew, we have considered taking production to another country, but nothing is confirmed yet.”

Eighty-five people were killed and hundreds injured in the attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. Iran has been blamed for the attack, but none of the accused have ever been brought to justice.

Nisman, who was heading the probe, was found shot dead in his apartment on Jan. 18 hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that the country’s president and other government officials covered up Iran’s role in the attack.

“This film is not Nisman’s biopic,” Jakubowicz told JTA. “The film takes a close look at the terrorist attack against the AMIA building, its victims and suspects and the web of lies and corruption that creeps beneath the surface. It also takes a close look at the alleged Iranian involvement.

“Iran’s threat to the world is as relevant as it has ever been,” he said.

Jakubowicz will develop the film in co-production with Spain’s A Contracorriente Films.

“The Prosecutor” will be the second film in his “trilogy of impunity,” which takes place in Argentina. The first, “Wakolda,” was about the Nazi war criminal Joseph Mengele’s escape to Argentine Patagonia. The film, co-produced by Jakubowicz, was Argentina’s submission to the Academy Awards and Golden Globes in 2014.

The third film will be about the unconfirmed theory that Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide, but escaped and lived in multiple Latin American countries, including Argentina.

With a similar budget, Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai also is preparing a movie about AMIA and Nisman.